Swissquote Reports Record Growth in 2018—Makes Moves in Asia

Swissquote is a publicly traded banking group founded in 1999. Swissquote facilitates online banking and offers multiple financial products and trading services. Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, Swissquote forms part of its parent firm Swissquote Group Holding Limited, which has been listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (SQN) since May of 2000. Earlier this month, Swissquote released growth figures from its 2018 business year, highlighting impressive gains in net revenue. It took in CHF 214.5 million last year, out of this, recording net profits of CHF 44.6 million—up more than 13.8 percent from last year, and the banks most successful year thus far. Undeterred by general market sentiment, the company scaled its operations as it created and filled nearly 600 new positions. Significant investments were also made in its technology and marketing departments, which greatly boosted its client acquisition and retention rates. Despite its rising operating costs, the company maintained a healthy profit margin of 20.8 percent while, at the same time, kept the capital ratio limited to just 29 percent. Beyond this, the company also witnessed a net new money inflow of CHF 3.115 billion.

The Asian Imperative

The company made its first entry into Asian markets by opening a new branch in Singapore. Although they are regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), they plan to apply for a new capital markets services license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Swissquote is well known for providing an innovative and state-of-the-art trading platform to its customers. Among its many products, the company is particularly focused on improving its services in the cryptocurrency sector—a market it believes will grow enormously in the coming years. In 2017, Swissquote partnered up with Bitstamp and started supporting cryptocurrency trades on its platform. This turned out to be a profitable venture for the company as it reported a 44 percent increase in profits for the first quarter of 2018, which came as a direct result of its newly featured cryptocurrency services.

New Products, But Not For You

With cryptocurrencies forming a large part of its success story in 2018, the company has announced new cryptocurrency related products that will further solidify its position in the market. Swissquote partnered up with Zug-based Crypto Storage AG, a subsidiary of Crypto Finance AG, to offer a highly secured crypto custody service which will form the first component of its new crypto-centric service. Additionally, after the 21st of March, 2019, the company will begin supporting the integration of external wallets with its platform. Currently, it appears this service will only be made available to institutional customers, allowing them to transfer cryptocurrencies from external wallets and vice-versa. It is claimed by Crypto Storage AG on its website, that its hardware security modules (HSM) are of the same grade as that of the Swiss National Bank. To further bolster consumer confidence and to increase security, the company stores its server racks in a nuke-proof former military bunker located somewhere in the Swiss Alps. Overall, the company has invested a significant portion of its profits into both scaling up and expanding its ventures. From being the first bank in the world to launch its own ICO, to the recent restructuring of its management hierarchy, Swissquote has already made a name for itself in the cryptocurrency sector. With close to two decades of experience as a money market service provider, its success story with cryptocurrencies could begin to pave the path for other banking institutions to follow. What do you think about Swissquote’s moves in the cryptocurrency space? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!